California State University at Northridge
4-15,2-6Big West
UC Irvine
6-13,4-4Big West
UC Irvine Snaps CSUN Win Streak in 3-0 Home Sweep
10/14/2023 5:57:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
IRVINE, Calif. – Perri Starkey had a team-high 12 kills but the CSUN women's volleyball team had its two-match win streak snapped in a 3-0 loss at UC Irvine in a Big West match Saturday afternoon at the Bren Events Center.
CSUN (4-15, 2-6 Big West) played the Anteaters to a pair of deuce games in the first two sets before ultimately falling by the score of 25-23, 25-23, 25-16.
One night after hitting over .300 as a team in a 3-0 win at Cal State Fullerton, CSUN hit .132 against UCI with Starkey the lone hitter to reach double figures. She led the Matadors with 12 kills but hit just .167 on 30 swings to go with seven digs and one ace. Taylor Hunter added eight kills (.091) and a pair of blocks while Leah Miller and Carisa Barron each chipped in six kills.
The Anteaters hit .250 as a team while also out-digging the Matadors 43-36. CSUN posted a 6-5 advantage in team aces while each team recorded nine blocks in the match.
SET 1: UCI 25, CSUN 23
Neither team led by more than two points until the Anteaters used a 4-0 run to snap a 10-10 tie. Three straight CSUN points cut the deficit to one (14-13) before UCI quickly built its lead back to five at 20-15. Still down five at 22-17, the Matadors engineered a 5-0 run to pull even when a UCI attack went long. But the Anteaters would claim three of the final four points to take the 25-23 win.
S1 l Hunter & Turgeon with the stuff! Matadors are within 1 at 22-21 ... Timeout UCI pic.twitter.com/GzniwlFAso
— CSUN Women's Volleyball (@CSUNWVB) October 14, 2023
SET 2: UCI 25, CSUN 23
After hitting .286 in the opening set, the Matadors slipped to .050 in set two but fell by the same 25-23 score. CSUN overcame an early 7-3 deficit to knot the score at 7-7 on a Tatiana Turgeon ace. The score remained tied at 9-9 when the Matadors scored three straight to take a 13-10 lead. CSUN extended its lead to four at 17-13 following a Starkey kill which forced a UCI timeout. A 5-0 Anteater run out of the timeout would give UCI the lead for good as the hosts held on for the 25-23 win.
S2 l UCI attack goes long and #CSUN takes a 15-12 lead into the media timeout pic.twitter.com/7YUJTyOAUH
— CSUN Women's Volleyball (@CSUNWVB) October 14, 2023
SET 3: UCI 25, CSUN 16
The Matadors looked good in the early stages of the final set, jumping out to an 8-1 lead following a Starkey kill. Four straight UCI points trimmed the lead to 8-5 forcing a CSUN timeout. Barron ended the run with a kill but the Matadors were outscored 8-1 over the next nine points as the hosts took a 13-10 lead. It was all Anteaters from that point on as the hosts closed the 3-0 win by claiming 12 of the final 18 points.
S3 l Matadors take advantage of a UCI hitting error and #CSUN is the first to 10#GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/LuxQzIgpov
— CSUN Women's Volleyball (@CSUNWVB) October 15, 2023
NOTES
- Kaia Kanan matched Barron with 15 assists to go with four digs.
- Paige Sentes had two of CSUN's six aces, upping her team-leading total to 29.
- Libero Kelsey Knudsen had a team-high 10 digs along with three assists and one ace.
- UC Irvine has now won five straight over the Matadors while improving to 34-30 in the all-time series.
ACCORDING TO COACH JOHN PRICE
"Winning a couple in a row we felt a little better about ourselves, but again we had a lot of opportunities tonight and just couldn't take advantage. I thought both teams were good offensively in the first set, they served tough but we passed pretty well. We're still a young team but we're not as young as we were a couple of months ago so that's a little frustrating."
UP NEXT
CSUN returns to Premier America Credit Union Arena next week to host Cal Poly on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Matadors will close the week with a road match at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 7 p.m.
#GoMatadors
